ZF Group has announced a collaboration with Horizon Robotics to launch an advanced driver assistance system in the Chinese market, supporting up to SAE Level 3 assisted driving and China’s urban Navigate on Autopilot (NOA).
Scheduled for mass production and delivery in 2026, the system will be applied to an electric vehicle platform of a Chinese automobile brand. This signifies a key breakthrough in ZF’s localization strategy in China in the intelligent driving field and injects strong impetus into China’s automotive industry, the companies said in a statement.
The co-developed ADAS with a processing power of up to 1,000+ TOPS is based on ZF’s ProAI automotive-grade compute platform and includes Horizon Robotics’ latest Journey 6P processing hardware. The solution supports the Transformer neural network architecture and the handling of advanced large models, including vision language models (VLM), vision language action (VLA) and end-to-end models. The system supports high-speed driving assistance, urban driving assistance, automatic parking functions and end-to-end full-scenario driving assistance functions from parking lot to parking lot.
The ZF ProAI serves as an automotive-grade central computer designed for versatile applications. Its scalable and modular architecture enables flexible configuration across different vehicle classes, types and system architectures.
“China is an innovation ‘homeroom’ and ‘gym’ for the global automotive industry and is also ZF’s most important strategic automotive market,” said Dr Christian Brenneke, head of the electronics & ADAS division at ZF Group. “Close cooperation with Horizon Robotics and Chinese brand auto makers allows us to more accurately grasp market trends, integrate globally leading technologies with local application scenarios, and provide customers with high-value products that combine technological advancement and market adaptability.”
“ZF has profound expertise and resources in the fields of chassis, electronics and ADAS. By deepening our strategic cooperation with ZF, we will contribute our local innovations to the global industrial chain. This allows us to leverage the synergy of global resources, enabling intelligent driving to benefit consumers in China and around the world more quickly,” said Dr Yu Kai, founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics.
“This collaboration can not only accelerate breakthroughs in next-generation intelligent driving but also promote the adoption of intelligent driving functions across a wider range of vehicles and markets, transforming intelligent mobility from exclusive to inclusive.”
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